Michigan’s roster has a handful of players sitting on the edge of a much bigger payday, and fall camp could be the thing that pushes them there. With NIL now baked into the sport’s everyday reality, a strong season can change a player’s value fast - especially at a place like Michigan, where depth charts and the transfer portal move money around in a hurry.
Chase Taylor is one of the clearest examples. Michigan’s linebacker group has taken a hit after losing its top three linebackers from last season, and the Wolverines will roll out all new players in 2026.
Taylor is expected to be part of the solution this year alongside Troy Bowles and Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng, but his NIL deal, per The NIL Standard, is nearly $350,000 less than either Owusu-Boateng and Bowles. If Taylor turns into the player the staff believes he can be, that number should climb quickly as he enters his junior year.
The same kind of opportunity is sitting in the receiver room. Michigan needed to clean up the passing game after 28 dropped passes last season, and bringing in five-star prospect Salesi Moa was part of the answer.
Moa is currently the seventh-highest-paid wide receiver on the roster, trailing names like Channing Goodwin, Jamar Browder, and Kendrick Bell. He isn’t locked into a starting job, but he is in the mix with Jaime Ffrench for the No. 3 role behind Andrew Marsh and JJ Buchanan.
Marsh, Buchanan, and Ffrench are all pulling in over $900,000 in NIL, per the NIL Standard, so Moa has a clear path to a much bigger number next season.
Shamari Earls is another player with a real chance to cash in. When he signed with Michigan, he was viewed as a future lockdown corner, but freshmen Jayden Sanders and Elijah Dotson jumped him on the depth chart last season.
Earls enters 2026 healthy and appears positioned for the No. 4 spot right now. With Jyaire Hill, Zeke Berry, and Smith Snowden all likely gone after this season, a strong year could send Earls soaring up the pecking order - and his NIL value with it.
Lugard Edokpayi is drawing plenty of buzz, too. The big edge rusher is already being talked about as a breakout candidate on the defensive line and as a pass-rush specialist.
He’s the seventh-highest-paid edge on the team entering the season, while John Henry Daley and Cameron Brandt are both above $1 million and Carter Meadows is nearly at $900,000. If Edokpayi earns a real rotation spot this fall, his market value should jump in a hurry.
Tommy Carr has a different kind of opening. Per the NIL Standard, he is one of the lower-paid players on the roster, even though many expected him to land as the No. 3 or No. 4 quarterback after signing with Michigan.
Instead, a strong spring has him sitting as the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart. He still has to beat out veteran Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, but quarterback money keeps rising, and Carr would become a much more valuable backup if he has a good fall camp and stays behind Bryce Underwood.
Then there’s Alister Vallejo, a true freshman who could force his way into the picture sooner than expected. Kyle Whittingham believes the defensive line is the strongest unit on the team, which makes it harder for a freshman to break through.
Even so, Vallejo has the kind of profile that gets attention. He was under-recruited in high school, has a wrestling background, and has drawn a comparison to Mason Graham - though that kind of comparison is one you never want to hand out lightly.
Vallejo still has to prove it on the college level, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if attrition opens the door for him to become a fixture on the Michigan defensive line next season.
In Other News...
Michigan Fans Will Love This Big House End Zone Debate
A look at Michigans home touchdown patterns from the last five seasons turns up a curious Big House quirk: the Wolverines have finished slightly more drives in the north end zone than the south. The edge is slim, though, and the broader point is that both ends of Michigan Stadium have been plenty busy since 2021.
Once the lower-tier opponents are removed from the sample, the split levels out even more, which keeps the debate from becoming much more than a fun fan conversation. Still, the north end zone has been tied to a few memorable moments, and that alone is enough to keep supporters watching for where the next celebration will happen. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Linebacker Problem Has Sent The Wolverines Into The Portal
Michigans linebacker room has become thin enough that the Wolverines are already looking to the transfer portal for help, with interest reportedly building around a pair of experienced options. The names in the mix are Trent Hendrick of James Madison and Jaylen Wester of Western Kentucky, two players who have already made their mark in college football and could give Michigan a much-needed layer of depth if the fit comes together.
What makes this situation worth watching is the timing. Both linebackers are still weighing whether to keep playing and neither has officially settled on a transfer decision, which leaves Michigan in the familiar spot of waiting on portal movement while trying to patch a roster need. For a program that has built its identity on physical defense, finding reinforcements at linebacker feels less like a luxury than a necessity, and the Wolverines may not be done searching if these talks stall. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Is Starting To Look Built For Big Ten Football
When Kyle Whittingham took over the Michigan football program, he saw a roster with plenty of raw athleticism but not enough of the foundational strength needed to hold up over a Big Ten season. Working with Director of Sports Performance Doug Elisaia, he put in place a demanding strength and conditioning program modeled after Utahs approach, with an emphasis on building the kind of power that shows up in the trenches and late in games.
The early results have been hard to miss. Before fall camp even opened, 97% of the players had posted personal bests in the major lifts, a strong sign that the bodywork is already changing the feel of the roster. For Michigan, the bigger question now is how that newly built strength translates once the games start, when the physical demands get real and every week feels like a test. [Read more 🡒]